'I'm sad for humanity': John Kerry reacts to Trump's sweeping climate cuts

ITV News

a day ago

ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew spoke to former US Secretary of State John Kerry from on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough, where scientsists are studying climate change deep within the Arctic Circle
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has told ITV News he is "very sad for humanity" following the Trump administration's sweeping climate cuts.
Kerry was the US's first Special Presidential Envoy for Climate during Joe Biden's presidency and played a significant role in climate protection efforts.
The new administration under Donald Trump has not shared Kerry's focus.
"I'm very sad that our country is not leading in the way that we were with President Biden and President Obama," Kerry told ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew.
"I'm very sad for humanity that any one nation is standing in the way of what the science tells us we must do in order to protect life, protect food production, protect the capacity of the ocean to provide us the oxygen that it provides us.
"You know, it's not a matter of politics or ideology, it's a matter of science. We have an absolute period of time within which to avoid the worst consequences of the crisis."
Kerry was speaking to ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew, who is on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough, as it researches climate change deep within the Arctic Circle.
More than 9,000 miles separates the two - with Kerry in France for the United Nations Ocean Conference, where he is calling for decisive action to protect the ocean.
However, through modern technology, they are able to see one another and speak of shared experiences.
After Kerry was shown the polar winter sunrise through a laptop webcam, he recalled his own visit to the most remote continent in the world in 2016.
"You just feel the wilderness all around you. But it's a thing of absolutely sheer wonder," he said.
"It just reaffirmed every notion you have about responsibility, about the life of the planet, about the size of that wilderness and what it means to us on a human level.
"And you just come away with great respect and awe and I think a sense of duty to transfer that to our daily endeavours and our responsibilities to deal with the climate crisis."
The Trump administration has taken an axe to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an 'American energy dominance' agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency alone faces a 54.5% proposed cut to funding, taking its budget to a level last seen when Ronald Reagan was president.
Under the latest tax and spending bill by the Trump administration, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", financial incentives for green technologies such as solar, wind, batteries, electric cars and heatpumps would be slashed.
Existing nuclear power plants and biofuels will be subsidised, but climate experts say this would leave the country and its people burning more fossil fuels, despite strong popular and scientific support for a rapid shift to renewable energy.
As often with Trump, the focus on energy production from oil and gas also comes alongside a slogan: 'Drill, baby, drill'.
Kerry told ITV News of an alternative: "Build, baby, build."
"Build the charging stations, build the solar fields, build the kinds of data centres that are going to be able to be managing their energy in a more effective way," he said.
"What he's doing is, I think, sadly turning his back on the greatest marketplace the world has ever known. There are 8.1 billion people on this planet who want energy, and they're going to get it.
"The question is, who's going to provide it, and is it going to be clean?
"The United States has a unique opportunity here in a bigger economic transition and opportunity than the Industrial Revolution.
"We have an opportunity to create jobs, clean jobs. People can make a profit with their investments just as they do today."
Asked if he had a message for scientists in the Antarctic whose work could be halted due to a reduction in US funding, Kerry said to "bear with us."
"Your work is absolutely critical to all of us," he said.
"I would say you are in a position, you scientists, to help us get greater data, more backup, persuade people, put your science on the line, help us to convert those who have doubts. Then we can start to go forward faster and do what we need to do."
The US is a world leader whose influence can push countries to act, or to fall back in line.
Trump's presidency and denial of the climate crisis have led to some worrying that other governments will follow suit.
Kerry, however, isn't convinced: "I believe most governments are going to stick with us because they know what they have at stake and they also have a strong commitment already to continuing.
"One person in the world has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, and only one person in the world has done it twice.
"Everybody else is moving forward, committed to try to meet these goals.
"The absence of a big powerful nation like the United States, which is the wealthiest country on the planet, the absence of that country and adding to the ability to be able to accelerate this is really harmful.